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IRISH SHENANIGANS

News from Ireland since the July letter is that the renovation project for the cottage at the foot of the Hill of the Fairies that I talked about didn't go through. When I returned from a summer trip to the US and inquired about the situation on the property, it appeared that a buyer had offered the price that was asked, upon which the seller promptly upped it to 30% more. The would-have-been buyer walked, and the auctioneer (realtor) asked me if I was still interested. Well, what do you think?

But it seems that the fairies were still smiling. My further wanderings uncovered an extended and renovated 4-bedroom bungalow (single-level) farmhouse on an acre of hillside with some fine trees and shrubs among mountains and lakes about 10 miles out from the center of Sligo town, which is where I have the flat currently. I signed the contracts last week. It's not just a house that's dead and you live in it, and that's that, but the kind of place you can have fun "doing things with." Besides the house itself, there are some outbuildings that could be converted into a self-contained chalet for visitors, or maybe a rental unit. There's also a huge metal "zeppelin shed" -- actually three spaces under one roof -- that right now I haven't a clue what I'll use for. Suggestions from the Review and Advisory Committee in McGarrigles pub have included: turning it into studio space that could be rented out to local artists; a recording studio; rehearsal space for dance or drama groups. But the unanimous consensus was that at the price, "Ah, ye can't let that go at all, at all." Those who have read "Sorry About That," the account of my previous dealings with Irish contractors that appeared in Rockets, Redheads & Revolution might shake their heads and despair that some never learn. But what's the point of gathering all that experience if you're not going to put it to good use? Now that I know how the system works nothing can go wring this time, right? But should Murphy strike again, at least it will be material for another article -- or maybe a book-length work, as my agent, Eleanor Wood, has been urging for. More news to follow, no doubt.

TUT TITLE CHANGE

Truth Under Tyranny, the nonfiction book on heresies and dogmatism in science that lots of people have expressed interest in, due for release next summer, is now retitled, Kicking the Sacred Cow: Heresy and Impermissible Thoughts in Science. Description and background, along with some sample excerpts from the manuscript, are posted on the Web site. I was happy enough with TUT, but the people at Baen Books preferred the alternative. They probably have a better feel for what works out there. And in any case, they sign the checks.

FIFTH GIANTS BOOK

Is moving along as the current main work in progress. Tentative title Multiverse, following Entoverse. More information on the What's New Page under Current Projects.

RERELEASES

Baen continue doing a good job of keeping the backlist alive with the reissue in October of The Immortality Option (Del Rey original, 1995), sequel to Code of the Lifemaker (Del Rey Original, 1983). Due to a communications foible between the New World and the Old, I haven't seen a copy of the Baen reissue myself, so details of the new edition are not yet on the web page. This will change shortly. Meanwhile, the book should be available from the regular sources.

WEB SITE UPGRADE

The direct ordering page for the web site that we seem to have been promising for a hundred years or so has actually been up and running on a mirror test site for some time now. All seems well, and Alex, who's handling the project, is currently in the process of moving things to a new server -- for arcane reasons known to people who are into these things -- before going live with it. I'll stick my neck out yet again, therefore, and say we should be up and running finally in the next week or so.

The next project after this will be to put the whole site on a database (I think that's why we're changing servers) and enhance the Index with a Search capability, making it possible to bring related items together by a keyword.